Electric Thornton

…the expression of a well-made man

appears not only in his face,

 

It is in his limbs

and joints also,

 

it is curiously in the joints

of his hips and wrists,

 

It is

in his walk,

 

the carriage

of his neck,

 

the flex of his

waist and knees,

 

dress does not hide him,

The strong sweet quality he has

strikes through the cotton and broadcloth,

 

To see him pass

conveys as much as the best poem,

perhaps more,

You linger to see his back,

and the back of his neck

and shoulder-side.

 

…O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only,

but of the soul, O I say now these are the soul!

from I Sing the Body Electric

by Walt Whitman